The stock ended up 14.1 per cent at an all-time closing high of $US61.11 ($69.58) a day after Facebook reported that profit in the fourth quarter jumped eightfold from a year earlier to $US523 million ($595m), boosting its net income for the year to $US1.5 billion ($1.7b).

"Facebook's ascendancy and execution in 2013 has been near-flawless," said Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Sandler in a note to clients.

The app, the first product from Facebook Creative Labs, will be available February 3 for iPhone users.

Paper presents stories and themed sections to allow people to follow topics ranging from news headlines to food to sports and science.

It has a tiled design that allows users to customise the display alongside a personal Facebook feed.

"Each section includes a rich mix of content from emerging voices and well-known publications," the blog post said.

The partners in Paper were not named, but a video released by Facebook showed a user scrolling articles and content from The New York Times, Time magazine, USA Today, The Huffington Post and others.

"Storytelling and sharing have been reimagined in Paper to show stories at their best," Facebook said.

The app will allow for full-screen viewing of videos and will "make it easy to spot articles from trusted publishers and decide what to read or watch," it added.

Facebook said users could tilt their phones to scroll through high-resolution panoramic photos and to zoom into details like faces.

Reports in recent weeks said Facebook was hiring editors or "curators" to complement its algorithmic method of delivering content to its users

The company's latest earnings report showed revenue in the past quarter rose to $US2.58 billion ($29.37b), and $US7.87 billion ($8.96b) for the year.

Facebook said the number of monthly active users rose 16 per cent from a year ago to 1.23 billion ($1.4b), with 945 million using mobile devices.

Advertising revenue surged to $US2.34 billion ($2.66b) in the quarter, up 76 per cent over the past year. Mobile advertising revenue represented some 53 per cent of that figure, an increase from 23 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

These gains appear to have paid off handsomely for Facebook and for its founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

The market intelligence firm Wealth-X said Zuckerberg's net worth has risen to $US29.7 billion ($33.8b) with the jump in Facebook shares.

"At 29 years old, Zuckerberg's current fortune equates to more than $US1 billion ($1.1b) for every year he has lived," Wealth-X said.